WASHINGTON, January 20. /TASS/. International Monetary Fund predicts an economic slump in 2015 and 2016 that will likely stand at 3% and 1% respectively. The figures are found in an updated report on the prospects for the world economy, the presentation of which is held in Beijing.
The new assessments are consonant with the forecasts drawn up by the Russian authorities or look even more optimistic in some cases. For instance, the Central Bank of Russia (CBR) said in mid-December that the country’s GDP might shrink 4.5% to 4.8% this year depending on how stressful the situation was and around 1.0% in 2016.
Last October, IMF predictions suggested that the Russian economy would contract by 0.5% in 2015.
The report does not contain updated figures for inflation, as the IMF traditionally includes them only in the full-scale forecast and analysis reports, which it releases each spring and autumn.
A commentary on the revised parameters says that a considerably weaker forecast for Russia reflects the economic aftermaths of a sharp fall of crude oil prices and the amassing of factors of geopolitical tensions, which could affect the economy directly and through the impact on the levels of confidents on the markets.
An abrupt slowdown of the Russian economy and the slide of the ruble’s exchange rate have considerably spoiled the prospects for other economies in the Commonwealth of Independent States, the report says.